Wednesday, October 10, 2007

rain, rain, and rain

Many people have said that October is the worst month of the rainy season. We were laughing about this a week ago, because the beginning of October started with three rain-free days (hallelujah). However, the last few days it has been pouring non-stop. Until recently, the rain did not start until the afternoon. Mornings were bright and warm, and then right around the time that the students get out of school (3:00), the rain would start, like clockwork, for a few hours.However, lately it has been raining day and night. You go to sleep listening to rain, wake up to the sound of rain, spend the school day in the rain, and go home while it rains. The creek behind our house is a rushing chocolate-colored river right now. Umbrellas are cheap here and can be found all over the place. If you forget your umbrella and need to get to walk across the street to another part of campus, the guards have extra ones that they will lone you. The students are going a little crazy in the rain too, and with good reason. They have no opportunities to run around, except during PE twice a week. They are abnormally loud and energetic in the cafeteria as well as the classroom. Today some of the third-graders practiced the waltz at lunch (they are studying Germany for the upcoming international day), and they seemed more like rubber balls bouncing off the walls than students. There are some people who are happy about the rain at Country Day School: the cleaning ladies. Usually they have to mop the shiny floors nonstop to clean off the thick layers of mud that accumulate in the halls after the recess soccer games. However, now that the water-saturated recess fields are off-limits, the floors have been clean and sparkling for days. I think that the cleaning ladies wish it would rain all day everyday.Fortunately, this weather should be coming to an end shortly. October is typically supposed to be the last day in the rainy season. Also, many people are claiming that when it starts raining in the morning it is a sign that the rainy season is going to end soon. We are going away to Playa Grande in the Pacific Northwest for our extra long weekend (thank you Columbus). Hopefully there will be a few opportunities to get some sun and see some turtles, but who knows if that will be the case.